


Time and Distance

by vailkagami



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 12:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vailkagami/pseuds/vailkagami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helen waits her way back to the present through a past that doesn't change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time and Distance

Not changing the past is easier on some days than it is on others. Helen doesn’t try to save John from what he will become because she didn’t do it. She doesn’t save Will’s mother although she has the chance, nor does she warn James of the malfunction in his equipment that will kill him. On the day she once became a mother she locks herself in her home and spends hours listening to music with her eyes closed. Saving her daughter’s life would make her no better than Adam, and everything would have been in vain.

On Ashley’s first day of school, she gathers her courage and watches her younger self lead her little girl through the gates from a distance that is not only physical. The temptation is strong, but the grief is very old. She lost her child a long time ago, and now she observes the memory with wistful fondness through the eyes of someone else.

As she walks away, she’s walking with lightness to her steps and humming a half-forgotten melody under her breath. (It might be a lullaby.)

 

29 January 2014

**Author's Note:**

> For my [genprompt-bingo card](http://vail-kagami.livejournal.com/188522.html), prompt: _The Hermit_.


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